Nice and Not-so-Nice…

By Rick Blumenberg / @RickBlumenberg

There are two kinds of people in the world (sure you’ve heard that before)—there are those who are “nice” and those who are “not-so-nice”. My mom’s been in heaven for decades but I still remember that she didn’t think there were any really bad people in the world just people who were not behaving like they knew they ought to. So as a nod to Mom, instead of saying nice or nasty people, (she would not be happy with me if I said it like that) I’ll call them "Nice“ and “Not-so-Nice”. I thank God for her teaching and example because she helped me understand that even those people who are “not-so-nice” are people loved by God and created in his image.

And when you think about it, most of us are neither totally “nice”, nor totally “not-so-nice”—we are mostly somewhere in between.

We find these two kinds of people in all races and all religions, in both genders, all family groups and in every diverse kind of people we can imagine. If we would stop categorizing people according to race, gender, religion, etc., and just think of them as either “nice” or “not-so-nice” we’d all be a lot better off.

Of course we would still have our problems because not everybody is nice. They could be if they wanted to, but some of them don’t. The great thing about these two kinds of people is that we can choose which group we want to be in. We're all in some groups where we don’t have a choice. I didn’t choose my gender, my skin color or the country where I would be born. Many people think we can't choose our sexual preference, but I really think that is a choice. I could be wrong about that, but I know for sure that each of us can choose to be nice if we want to. Or, we can instead choose to be nasty or not-so-nice.

Because there are people in every society who refuse to be nice, we sometimes have to do things to protect ourselves from each other. Thankfully we have families, churches, schools, and various other organizations to help us deal with those “not-so-nice” people and in the extreme situations we have police and the military to protect us from them. Most of the police and the military in our nation are in the “nice” category, but they can be pretty firm if necessary when dealing with “not-so-nice” people and sometimes the results can be painful. Unfortunately, a few of the people in power, whether they be police or military, employers, parents, politicians, etc.,  are “not-so-nice” and the powerless or less powerful need to be protected from them.

I could name some “not-so-nice” people, but I won’t because you all know some so you know what I mean. However, after writing this article and thinking I really need an illustration to make it complete, Carol (my wife) shared an article with me she found on the internet about Andrew luck, star quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. He is one rough and tough football player and isn’t afraid to mix it up with the best of them, but what the article was about was his style of “trash talk”. According to Kevin Clark, the author, (Nice Trash Talker, Andrew Luck) when Luck gets hit really hard he is likely to yell at the player who hit him and say, “Great job!” or “What a hit!”

Clark writes

“When New England pass rusher Rob Ninkovich pulverized Luck last month in a Patriots’ 42-20 win, he got the customary congratulations. As Ninkovich tells it, he found himself paralyzed with confusion by the well-wishes, so he blurted out “Thanks for...uh...accepting that hit?” before running back to the huddle.

It doesn’t matter what color we are, what job we do or just about any other real or imagined division we experience, there are “nice” and “not-so-nice” people in all groups.

I don’t always succeed, but I always try to be in the “nice” group and I hope you will too. We do have a choice.

I'm Rick Blumenberg and that's My View from Tanner Creek.

 

The Idolatry of Creationary Evolution

The most widespread, vicious and prolonged attack on the concept of the Divine origins of our universe comes, not from atheists, but from those who claim to be atheists while espousing and worshiping the god of creationary evolution. Of course one hallmark of religion is the presence of faith—there are some things that cannot be proven and must be accepted by faith because there may never be objective proof or scientific evidence. Faith, however, to be worthy, must be rooted in something that is provable beyond reasonable doubt by evidence that is authentic and in enough abundance to not be an aberration. Creationary evolution fails miserably to meet such criteria. Creationary evolution scientists want us to accept by faith that the world came into being by purely natural phenomena. They insist that Darwinism is genuine science and Christianity, or any faith that teaches Creation by Divine fiat, is foolishness and fiction. They deride faith while actually being people of blind faith, if they really believe what they claim.

Now you may question why I call creationary evolutionists people of faith, but I ask you, where is the proof of their creator? Where is the evidence of their creation story? It doesn’t exist and only those who have blind faith in an unproven theory with no supporting evidence could possibly believe such nonsense.

Where is the fossil evidence of even one species that has mutated to a totally new species? Such evidence is a requirement for their claims to be taken seriously. Even Darwin, himself, I am told, said for his theory to be accepted as fact, it would need to be proven by evidence in the fossil record. Now, on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s theory, that evidence is still missing, but the blind faith of creationary evolutionists is so vocal and determined to obliterate any concept of Divine creation, that they ridicule scientists who believe in intelligent design. The resistance is sometimes so strong I’ve heard they seek to trash believing scientists’ careers and drive them from scientific professions. People of blind faith cannot allow critical analysis of their faith or it will be proven inadequate at best and at worst, totally false. If you are a creationary evolutionist, clinging to a fallacy on blind faith there is nothing more frightening than critical analysis of your unsupportable theology.

On the other hand, where is the evidence of Divine creation? Does the universe indicate the presence of a creator? How likely is a mixture of chemical soup to grow into such an amazing thing as a human body in all its magnificence, or a human brain that can contemplate such possibilities? And the galaxies of the universe—how could they just happen, with no intelligence behind them? There is much evidence there must be intelligence behind the creation of our universe.

The difficulty, of course, is that evolution is a proven fact, so the preachers and priests of creationary evolution try to parlay this into proof that creation came about through evolution and that is where their argument fails.

The concept of the separation of church and state was created by thoughtful people who wanted to protect genuine religion from the rule of politicians. Now the religion of creationary evolution is being taught in our schools under the guise of scientific truth but the primary purpose is not scientific truth, but the destruction of genuine faith in the Creator God. We need to recognize this religion and reveal it in the public square for what it is—a false religion and pseudo science. It is a false religion that seeks to usurp the rightful place of truth and reason—and replace it with the absurdity of creationary evolution.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .and that's My View from Tanner Creek.